Thiery Henry has been interviewed by the BBC for the Football Focus programe, due to go out this Saturday, 26th April 2008.

It looks quite interesting and from an Arsenal point of view I’ll be watching. It’s also interesting to hear what he really thinks about his move to Barcelona and the season he’s had.

I’ll always respect Henry because, in my opinion, he’s not an arrogant or ‘false’ player or person. What I mean is he just tells it like it is, no fuss; he just gets on with it. I suppose it’s fairly easy if you’re earning millions of pounds a year playing football 2 or 3 times a week! But seriously, all the fame and hassle that comes with it must be very irratating after a certain amount of time…

Henry has been quoted as saying ‘There’s only one team for me in my heart’ - I presume he means Arsenal! Of course he does!!

>>Click here to see a video clip of the interview

“People who know me will tell you, I’m the same in training, I’m the same in life - I cannot act. If I’m not happy, I’m not happy,” he said.

 ”I don’t know. I’m happy here at Barcelona. I still have three years of my contract left with Barcelona.”

“But England… I watch every game that I see on TV. I was watching Stoke City versus Crystal Palace. I will always miss it.”

“There has been since I arrived here a lot of speculation from day one but, hey, go back where? There’s only one team for me in my heart. It took me a while to understand what that club, Arsenal, meant.”

“I don’t regret stuff in my life. Stuff happens for a reason. You don’t regret stuff that you thought about. I don’t regret it.”

Don’t forget to catch the full interview on Football Focus, BBC1 12:10, Saturday 26th April 2008.

I’ve heard a few reports on the radio and now on SkySports.com that Flamini may be off to Juventus at the end of the season if he doesn’t get round to signing a new contract with us soon. Personally I hope he stays, he provides much need depth in the team and we’d have to spend some serious cash to replace his quality.

Reports from Italy claim that Juventus make an offer of a five-year deal, worth in the region of £3million per season.
 
“This is an important player who we have been chasing for some time, and it will have to be good to take him because many teams are interested,” Blanc said in Corriere dello Sport.

Arsene Wenger says the attacking style of football we play will bring the first load of silverware to The Emirates, but he conceded the Premier League title is now out of reach.

Unfortunately we’re going to be trophyless for a third season after the 2-1 defeat by Manchester United on Sunday. Wenger said “We will continue to play the way we do but better,” Wenger said. “The trophies will come.

“The main target is to keep the team together. They are absolutely amazing.”

“Arsene is a great man and a great manager,” said striker Adebayor, “He has achieved a lot of things with this club. For sure he is going to be here. He has a vision to bring a lot of good players to this club like Alex Hleb, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue, Cesc Fabregas and William Gallas.

 I feel we have done a lot for the Premier League this season by the way we have promoted it

I suppose I don’t really need to say it but we’re 9 points behind United with just four fixtures remaining, and 3 points behind Chelsea. We should now just enjoy the rest of the football left this season and look forward to the next one.

Wenger was disapointed after Sunday and he suggested that decisions went against Arsenal at Old Trafford were unfortunately a trend for the whole season.

“Overall, I am very proud of my team’s performance,” he said.

“We had to be exceptionally strong after the Liverpool game - and we were.

“I feel the difference between success and failure is very little. We do not feel there is much between ourselves, United and Chelsea when it comes to technical ability and quality.

“So it is difficult to accept we will not win the title.

“I want to win trophies and it is sad we cannot win a trophy this season.

“On the other hand, I feel we have done a lot for the Premier League this season by the way we have promoted it.”

I can’t bring my self to say how unhappy I am with last nights result. I think Wenger sums it up; the two dodgy penalty decisions finished off the tie for us.

Click here to see the video of Wenger’s interview after the match

I hope that TV referees can be brought into football like they use them for rugby, even if it’s only for penalty and offside decisions. Footballers today are overpaid and rely on cheating to win games, simple as that. If TV referees were brought in then maybe footballers might be able to stay on their feet in penalty areas in every ground in the land, now that would be amazing…

I love the first paragraph here; ‘Goal hero Ryan Babel believes it was the incredible support of the Kop that inspired Liverpool to overcome Arsenal on another wonderful European night at Anfield.’

Yeah - & thanks to the invisible Liverpool fan who magically jumped out of the Kop and tripped him up for the penalty! I think there was a lot of shoulder flapping and that was about it….

Arsene Wenger is still adamant that we can still bring home the Champions league and Premier league double this season. He said he still believes we can finish as champions in the league but we need to win at United on Sunday. “I also believe we can win the Champions League. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think that.”

Click here to see the conference with Arsene Wenger…

The game at Anfield tonight is pivotal for both Arsenal and Liverpool, to be honest Liverpool have nothing else to play for this season with them lagging behind the top 3 in the Premership. Anyway the Champions league 2nd round, quarter final game at Anfield is a must win for us, we cannot afford to start as we did on Saturday and we need to go for the win within the 90 minutes. I hope we don’t leave it until we have to score, we should be looking to beat Liverpool convincingly in the first half of the game.

Wenger put pay to the rumours that Fabregas is suffering from fatigue, having played 41 games this season, he said; “I still think Cesc has enough in the tank, even if he has played a lot of games.”

Don’t forget we lost to Chelsea in the 2004 Champions League quarter final, Arsene said “We drew at Chelsea 1-1 and then lost at home to a last-minute goal, so we can take an example from that,”

Comon Arsenal!!

Not a good result again on Saturday, we needed to step it up and all 3 point from Liverpool with the title race still hanging in the balance. Wenger still refuses to give up on the title race but personally I’m not convinced United will let 6 points slip away from them now. Also don’t forget Chelsea are still in there as well…

Liverpool went ahead from a Crouch goal into the bottom corner. It was Bendtner who powered a header in from a Fabregas free kick to even up the score. It was lucky that Voronin wasted a few very good chances for Liverpool late on.

There were lots of changes from the two teams that kicked off the Champions League first leg tie earlier in the week. Infact Liverpool only started 3 of the same players involved in the Champions League game.

I think we were poor in the early stages of the game and really, really need to be up for it tomorrow if we’re to get a result at Anfield. The whole season pivots on the next few weeks and I hope we can do the business and beat Liverpool convincingly tomorrow night.

William Gallas says Arsenal will show their quality in their UEFA Champions League second leg against Liverpool at Anfield.

The first leg of the quarter-final at the Emirates Stadium ended 1-1 with debayor’s 23rd minute goal taking the lead for the gunners. Dirk Kuyt got the equalizer just 3 minutes later on 26 minutes.

Everyone is saying the away goal gives Liverpool a slight advantage going into the return leg at Anfield next week but I think this will only encourage the Gunners to give everything and go for the win. Gallas told Sky Sports that he’s looking forward to the match next week:

“We know that it will be difficult, we know that they will be strong and we know the supporters will be behind them, so that will be the opportunity to show everybody how good we can be,” Gallas told Sky Sports News.

Speaking to Sky Sports Cesc Fabregas said he thinks it will be tough:

“There are still 90 minutes to play, we know what we can do and we know what it is to play at Anfield.

“It will be tough, it will be difficult, but the pressure is still there for both of us.”

Arsenal should have had a second half penalty when Kuyt pulled back Hleb in the box but the referee only gave a corner…

Kolo Toure, said it was maybe too tight to push for a winner: “It is always difficult because you don’t know if you have to push or to wait because you don’t want to concede a goal as it would be really difficult for the second game.

“We didn’t know if we have to go for one or don’t concede a goal.”

Can’t wait for the return leg at Anfied!

Arsene Wenger says that tonights Chapions League match at the Emirates is the start of his toughest 12 days as Arsenal manager.

Wenger said: “It will be the highest challenge of my career at Arsenal. It’s very exciting, the moment of thruth. We have worked the whole season for this.

“I believe that we are in the championship raceand we have two Champions League games in this period.

“The impact of the first game of the sequence is vital. If we produce a good performance, and I am convinced that we will, we can beat Liverpool, we can beat Milan, we can beat everybody in the world.”

Kolo Toure added to the confidence buzzin through the Arsenal camp since the 10 man comeback at the Reebok Stadium on Saturday, he said: “Going forwards Liverpool are really good but we have the quality to stop them. Torres is a great striker and he is doing really well in England.

“But for us, it is not Torres who is the most important, it is the team. If you can stop Steven Gerrard, then you can stop the Liverpool team. Torres is a really good player, but if he does not have a really good Steven Gerrard then the game will be much easier for us.

“They have a good understanding, the way each other plays, the way they pass the ball, the way they move and this is what we will be looking to stop.

“We all believe. We trust each other and know that together we are really strong. We came back with only 10 mean at Bolton and that is really important for mthe rest of the season.”